


"Oh? Not Bad"

by ChristmasRivers



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Compliant, Comfort, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Exhaustion, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 13:33:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6612514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristmasRivers/pseuds/ChristmasRivers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of short Levi/Eren and Levi & Eren drabbles posted on my tumblr: (1) Spirit Pizza | (2) "Wait...What?" | (3) You’re Beautiful | (4) Close Call | (5) Leave to Rest (Levi & Eren) | <b>NEW  (6) Cleaning Cleaners</b></p><p><strong>NEW</strong> Modern AU, Established Relationship - What do you do when your cleaning obsessed boyfriend asks you to help him clean out the inside of the vacuum cleaner of all things? And when he asks you to spend an entire day cleaning the rest of the tools meant for cleaning other things? Eren asks himself these questions and is somewhat surprised and pleased by his own answers. Of course, the kind of thanks Levi offers him when it’s all said and done doesn’t hurt either ;)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Spirit Pizza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren says some of the most ridiculous sounding things sometimes—this time it’s about pizza—but sometimes Levi knows and understands Eren better than Eren understands himself. (Modern AU; established relationship).

"I want pizza."

Levi glanced over at Eren.

"But I don't want to order it in. Or pick it up. Or go buy a frozen one and cook it."

 _Lazy ass._ "Well, if you want I can go—"

"And I don't want the fatty calories from eating it either..."

Levi finally turned, shifting from where he was sitting on the floor with his back against the couch, to glare at Eren where he sprawled sleepily on his stomach across its full length, fiddling with Levi's hair.

"So I guess you _don't_ want pizza, then?" Levi dryly, setting down the book he had been engrossed in for the past hour or so.

"I want...what do I want...." Eren mumbled, not seeming to hear Levi at all. Levi was tempted to nip at Eren's fingers where they had frozen in place near his head, still poised to ruffle. But before he could turn any further, Eren's face lit up.

"I want the SPIRIT of pizza." He pronounced boldly, eyes suddenly bright and fully awake.

After a pause, Eren finally looked down to meet Levi's eyes. None of his enthusiasm wavered as Levi met his sudden outburst of energy with a flat expression.

The moment stretched, Eren eager and Levi staring back expressionlessly until finally Levi twisted back around and levered himself up with a surprised squawk from Eren. He stretched, brushing off non-existent dust from the bottoms of his pants, then stalked off without a backward glance.

"I'm going out to get pizza."

"Levi, wait, you don't…"

Eren's words drifted off into silence as Levi grabbed his coat, keys and was out the door before the sentence had even finished forming in Eren's head. He was still stuck staring at the door, frozen halfway into sitting up on the couch two minutes later when a buzz from his phone sitting on the cushion next to him made him jump.

 **[Levi]:** Do you want plain cheese or the usual toppings?

Eren burst out laughing, finally moving to sit up all the way, and then swung his feet onto the floor and leaned forward onto his knees to tap out a reply.

 **[Eren]:** YES!! :D

\---

About an hour later, Eren murmured around a mouthful of their one of favorite pizza shop's ultimate pies,

"Man, I love pizza."

Levi glanced up as he set down his own half-eaten slice to wipe yet more grease off of his hands— _Jeez, putting meat on a pizza…any more grease than this and I'll be eating it with a fork, so help me—_ and to take a sip of iced-tea. Eren caught his glance, turned his eyes down to his food, and finished chewing before adding,

"But you still didn't need to—"

"Eren."

"Really, I didn't mean that we—"

"EREN."

Eren looked up to see Levi staring at him flatly from over his raised glass.

"Eat the pizza."

Eren blushed slightly, caught by Levi's stare, then gave a small smile as he looked back towards the pies in the center of the table—one cheese, the other overloaded—and reached for another slice.

"Thanks, Levi."

Watching Eren completely engrossed in a rapidly disintegrating overburdened slice, Levi felt a quiet smile grow on his face too. _Heh…now that's the spirit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing tumblr is [verbostrocity.](http://verbostrocity.tumblr.com/) Link for this work on tumblr: [here.](http://christmasrivers.tumblr.com/post/137381341146/spirit-pizza) Visit my writing blog for more of my writing, previews and updates ;)


	2. "Wait...What?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren walks in on something that gives him pause. Wait. What did he just hear???

“Stupid son of a shit…of all the times to pull out.”

 _Wait…What?!_ “Uhhhh…Levi?”

Eren walked into the living room, following the sounds of fumbling and muttering to find Levi wrestling with attachments to the vacuum cleaner on the far side of the room. At the sound of Eren’s voice he looked up and blew out a sigh of relief.

“Oh. Hey. Good timing. Could you plug the cord back in for me, please. I thought I had finished…shitty hidden dustbunny…”

Eren looked down blankly to the vacuum cord at his feet and then over to the wall where the plug was barely popped out. _Oh._

He pushed the cord back in that fraction of an inch and moments later Levi was back at his precision vacuuming. _Oh…_

The reality of what had just occurred finally sank in and Eren let his face fall into his hands. _And I thought…Oh my god…_ He shook his head, hiding the color rising on his cheeks. _Good grief. What would life be without Levi in it?_

“Hey. What’s up? Go take your shoes off and get your ass in here. I put dinner in a half an hour ago and it’ll be done in ten and I want to get this shit done before then. I need you to help me get the dustbunnies under the heavy furniture in the hall.”

 _Probably a hell of a lot less interesting._ He smiled. _But definitely a lot less clean._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing tumblr is [verbostrocity.](http://verbostrocity.tumblr.com/) Link for this work on tumblr: [here.](http://christmasrivers.tumblr.com/post/137414604133/waitwhat) Visit my writing blog for more of my writing, previews and updates ;)


	3. You're Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren sent Levi a text earlier that day that literally read “you’re beautiful” but when Eren comes around later, he admits to Levi's face that he “isn’t pretty” - so Levi wants to know: which is it?

**[Eren]:** You’re beautiful.

Levi stared at the text Eren had sent him hours earlier for a long moment before he raised the phone up and waved the screen lazily at the guy lying beside him.

“Tch. Next you’ll be calling me ‘pretty’, too.”

Eren shifted his head slightly to glance over at his boyfriend. “Hmmm…no. Probably not. Because you’re not.”

Huh.

 _Ok. Wait. What?_ Levi turned his head to the right to stare at the other man lying on the bed next to him. They were both still in their clothes from the day; Eren had just come home from a long day of late classes and Levi had just made it back from a hard day’s overtime. But that was beside the point. Levi frowned. _What exactly is that supposed to mean??_

It wasn’t as if Levi _wanted_ Eren to call him pretty or something but the way he said it…

“Excuse me? So…what? I can be beautiful without being pretty first? How does that work out exactly?” Levi questioned, propping himself up on one elbow to stare at Eren.

“Well, it’s not that I don’t find you attractive,” he replied without even glancing over at Levi. He raised his arms over his head in a stretch and tucked them behind his head as he went on. “Because you definitely are.” He yawned and Levi felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

“But pretty?” He shook his head and yawned again. “Nope. That’s not you.”

 _Ok, well I’m glad we cleared that one up,_ Levi thought sardonically as he laid back down with a huff. Levi opened his mouth to ask how it was that Eren got beautiful from “attractive but not pretty” but it turned out Eren wasn’t done speaking yet. The words died in Levi’s mouth as Eren went on.

“But that’s not what makes you beautiful. Or at least that’s only a small part of it…” he mused, still staring absently at the ceiling as he seemed to pluck at words, trying to find the right ones to describe his thoughts. Levi’s eyes were drawn to where Eren’s fingers were fiddling absently with his hair.

“You smile. When you don’t think anyone is watching, you smile for real,” Eren explained as a smile of his own dawned on his face. “Whenever you find a new kind of tea or a brand you haven’t been able to find in a while. After you’ve finished vacuuming and dusting and cleaning the crap out of the whole apartment and everything is back in its place. When you read something you really enjoy. When you tell me I’m a ‘little shit,’” he laughed, turning on to his side to beam down at Levi.

“But also whenever you look at me and you don’t realize I can see you, too,” Eren finished, his bright smile full of mirth turning warm and fond as he considered the blush rising on Levi’s face at his words. _When the hell did he…how had I not noticed…since when does Eren notice that much?_ Eren’s statements were embarrassing to Levi, but they were also strangely heartening, as if they were things he had wished to hear but never expected anyone to notice. At the same time, he wasn’t sure he could take much more without having his entire face light on fire. Eren seemed to notice this, but he didn’t let up.

“And you always get my coffee ready for me in the mornings, whether I make it out of bed when you do or not. You tolerate me leaving my shoes by the front door even though it bothers you, because you can accept that I’m trying my best to keep them and the dirt in the same place every time and that maybe you need to be less uptight about that kind of stuff.”

“You see all your little flaws like those and they bother you and so you try to compromise and work on them. I see you catching yourself sometimes right before you’re about to snap at me for something, and then you think it through and try to be fair about it.”

“You never kill any of the bugs you don’t have to—you curse at them, but throw them outside instead—and put out food for the stray cats and dogs in inconspicuous places when the weather gets rough. You even took a few of those guys in to the shelter one time, too, didn’t you? You didn’t like the idea that you were helping them but not really helping them find a stable situation. You feel that way about homeless people, too…I had never really known how to feel about the homeless until I noticed you never turned down a person who asked for something reasonable and always tried to suggest good places for them to go to get help. Now I try to do that too…”

Levi didn’t know how to react to having his own personality and behaviors laid bare in front of him by another person. He was frozen, staring into his boyfriend’s face as Eren himself looked down to where he was fiddling with the fingers of Levi’s right hand where it lay between them on the bedspread.

“You always try to tell me the truth about things, even when it isn’t pretty or you don’t have all the right words for it. Especially when it’s the truth about how you feel about things.” Eren did look up at this point and his fingers stilled as he met Levi’s eyes straight on with his intense green ones. “You always tell it to me straight, and I can’t tell you how much it infuriates me sometimes but also how much I appreciate it, even when it stings.”

“Sometimes you drive me crazy—with the cleaning and the strange hours and your pickiness,” Eren laughed, shaking his head. “But…you’re always there to support me, too,” Eren finished in a murmur, taking Levi’s hand into his own. “And you forgive so many of the stupid things I do.” Eren pushed himself up and withdrew his hand, only to throw a leg over Levi and lean in close, so close that Levi could feel Eren’s breath puffing against his lips.

“Those are the things…all of the things…those things…that…ugghh,” Eren winced, closing his eyes for a second with a frustrated sound, and Levi thought in that moment that he had never seen anything more real or more _beautiful_ than the boy struggling for words in front of him just then.

“Everything that makes you _you_ is beautiful.”

\---

**Bonus:**

“Heh, but I’d call _you_ ‘pretty’”

Eren froze over Levi before pulling back a bit, eyes widening. Levi licked the excess moisture off his lips from where their kiss had begun to turn wild, then grinned and continued the lighthearted teasing.

“I mean just look at those big, _pretty_ green eyes of yours–”

“Hey, that’s different,” Eren sputtered. “You have pretty eyes! _Gorgeous_ eyes–”

Eren cut off with a squawk as Levi flipped them suddenly. “You stole the words right out my mouth,” he murmured warmly, closing the distance again and watching in amusement as the motion caused the gorgeous emerald eyes in question to widen further, giving him a perfect view. A second later the pupils in those eyes widened too, their owner gasping as Levi ground down slowly on top of him.

“So don’t mind me,” Levi breathed, “if I steal the rest of yours.” Levi swallowed Eren’s response by pressing down to claim his mouth as soon as the younger man’s opened. And Eren did his best to respond, moaning into the kiss in a way that set Levi’s blood on fire. But neither of them really said much of anything for awhile after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing tumblr is [verbostrocity.](http://verbostrocity.tumblr.com/) Link for this work on tumblr: [here.](http://verbostrocity.tumblr.com/post/137903427980/youre-beautiful) Visit my writing blog for more of my writing, previews and updates ;)


	4. Close Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi notices Eren is limping, is concerned, but—shit, how the hell can something so tight even be considered “pants”?

“Uh…what are you doing?”

“Huh? Whaddya mean?”

“That hopping? Why are you hopping—or is it limping—on that one leg?”

Levi stops on the sidewalk and gestures at Eren’s left leg, noticing for the first time as he looks down that there is a strange bulge down near Eren’s knee.

“What the hell is that?”

Eren hobbles to a stop a step later and huffs out a laugh.

“Hah. Yeah. That’s my cell phone.”

There a long pause then Levi asks, “Why is your cell phone in your pants? Or more specifically, why is your cell phone in your _pant leg_ , down near your _knee,_ of all things?”

Eren laughs again, then resumes hobbling forward, this time surreptitiously shaking his left foot a bit with every step. Levi shakes his head and steps up beside Eren as they continue down the sidewalk, headed toward their favorite café.

“Well,” Eren explains after a few more awkward steps, “these pants don’t have pockets. So I put my phone in the waistband while we were carrying those boxes for Mx. Zöe.” Hanji Zöe, their crazy, elderly neighbor. The batty old academic had managed to catch Eren and Levi as they had been leaving and somehow convinced the two of them to help “‘ol professor Hanji” carry boxes of ancient research data down to the professor’s car. “It started slipping about halfway downstairs, but our hands were full, so I just kept quiet about it.”

Levi frowns. “So why didn’t you stop afterwards and pull it out? And, better question, what kind of pants don’t have pockets in the first place?”

Eren snorts and shakes his head. “It was already too far down for me to reach without causing a scene.” That was probably true; after that they had stood on the curb, watching uncertainly as Hanji lurched away in their old Corolla, wincing when the batty biology professor nearly hit three other cars before making to the end of the street.

“It keeps slipping lower every time I move anyways, so I thought I’d just wait it out.” Sure enough, a couple steps later the rectangular lump has made it down to the side of Eren’s calf.

“Oh, and the pants don’t have pockets because they’re women’s pants,” Eren finishes with an embarrassed grin and a shrug.

“What? Why don’t woman’s pants have pockets? Wait, that’s not right; I definitely have some women’s jeans and those have pockets.”

Eren shrugs. “Well…they're…tight pants…” he points out, punctuating each word with a discreet stomp, trying to get the mobile device to slide down just a couple of inches more so that he would be able to bend down like he was going to tie his shoes and slip the phone out. “And…I guess… with these… pants… pockets… just… don’t… work!” The phone finally slips free with a clatter on the last word and Eren swoops down and picks it up before anyone else on the sidewalk can look to see whose cell had fallen. 

Smiling broadly, he wipes the smartphone on his shirt and continues walking as if nothing out of the usual had happened. Levi picks up his pace to catch up, the younger man walking smartly now that he is free of the “close call” with his phone. They’re close now, and they’re both hungry, so neither waste anymore time talking as they walk the last couple of meters and turn up the steps to the café. 

\---

But sitting over a full pot of tea and two veggie paninis fifteen minutes later, Levi can’t help but wonder out loud, “But…why are you wearing woman’s pants so tight they can’t have pockets anyways?”

Eren chokes on a bite of his sandwich and Levi covers the smirk tugging at his lips by lifting his cup for another sip.

“Because I like the fit, ok?!” Eren spits out a second later. “They sit differently on my hips and I just like how looks. Jeez…” he grumbles, throwing his wadded up napkin at Levi, whose smirk has finally broken through.

“They look good on you,” Levi admits—they really do and now that Levi has the image in his head, it is difficult to keep a blush off his face as well—“but try not to wear them too often,” he finishes seriously, folding the napkin absently. “I hear that wearing tight pants can be bad for your health.”

As he finishes he slides the neatly folded napkin back to Eren, tapping one finger to his chin and another to the napkin. Eren looks pleased at the compliment, but rolls his eyes exaggeratedly at the motherly warning as he wipes his chin.

However, Levi isn’t quite finished, and as Eren wipes his chin, Levi leans forward to continue in a low voice. “And as much I look forward to having to physically help you out of those pants tonight, I really don’t want to see you get hurt.” Levi struggles to keep his face serious and his tone even, but it’s worth it to see the dumbfounded look on Eren’s face as he freezes, napkin still raised to his face. “I love you too much for that,” Levi finishes with a wink.

The way Eren goes from shock to laughing so loudly that people turn and stare to smiling and shooting back a cheeky “I love you, too” lights something up inside of Levi. _These are what separate being alive and actually feeling alive. All these colorful moments._ He smiles. And with Eren in his life, how could there ever be a dull moment?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing tumblr is [verbostrocity.](http://verbostrocity.tumblr.com/) Link for this work on tumblr: [here.](http://verbostrocity.tumblr.com/post/143139542420/close-call) Visit my writing blog for more of my writing, previews and updates ;)


	5. Leave to Rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Levi convinces an uptight Eren to give himself a break and take a rest - and somehow talks himself into doing the same. Canonverse - pre/no relationship; Eren & Levi.

“Eren…? Eren?”

Levi strode down the hall briskly, peering into the open doors of every room as he passed. “Eren?”

It was their third day into cleaning up the old Survey Corps’ castle and Levi had set his youngest squad member to cleaning the rooms of the third floor, south wing–twelve or so rooms that might have been bedrooms or offices at some point in the past. Now they were home to nothing but mismatched stacks of furniture and thick layers of dust and grime. Accumulated filth Levi hoped Eren was working to expunge at that very moment. While searching Levi noticed that all the rooms to his left were nearly spotless - not bad - while all the ones on his right looked untouched. Evidence that _someone_ had been in the process of cleaning up here in the past few hours, at least. “Eren, sound off your location.”

Silence.

“Eren! Answer me!” Still nothing. Pushing down a surge of unease, Levi stuck his head into the very last room at the end of the hall then froze. A millisecond later he exhaled a quiet “tch” before stepping silently into the room.

There, on an old bed, sprawled his young subordinate, Eren’s legs hanging half off the side of the dusty mattress while his cleaning tools sat abandoned near his head. Shaking his head at the awkward position, Levi supposed that Eren must have cleaned half of the hall’s rooms, sat down to rest for a moment and then slumped over without even realizing it.

Levi leaned over him, ready to shake him awake, then paused[*]. The boy’s mouth hung agape and his chest rose and fell in a slow, easy rhythm. Levi needed to rouse him soon–they had things to get done and it was only nine in the morning yet, no time to be throwing off their sleep schedule–but Levi hesitated as he considered that this might be the first time he had seen Eren relaxed and at ease in all the time since he had first met him in that courthouse dungeon nearly a week previously.

In that time he had seen Eren nervous, angry, bleeding, fearful, anxious, distressed, uncertain, uncomfortable, intimidated, and so on, but he had yet to see Eren relax, even in the slightest. Not even at their meal breaks or down-times had he seen the tension drain out of the young soldier. Nor had he seen the kid crack a real smile in all that time—not counting the hesitant one he had given Erwin three days previously at his unorthodox induction.

Levi had hardened in so many ways in order to cope with the suffering and hardships of serving in the Survey Corps–not to mention how jaded he had been already from the the hard life he had endured growing up in the Underground–but even he couldn’t fault the growing teenager for nodding off after the last couple of days that he’d had. An early morning having the living shit kicked out of him, followed by a long ride out to an old castle during which he was relentlessly intimidated by his new superiors and senior squadmates, followed by a day of copious cleaning, followed by a sleepless night listening to Shitty Glasses rant on about titans, followed by a morning of more uncertainty and intimidation–from Erwin no less–followed by even more cleaning after that… Yeah, Levi could see how the kid could be dead on his feet.

And Levi knew for a fact Eren hadn’t slept much the past night either; he hadn’t been able to sleep himself so he had taken a walk down by the dungeons around three in the morning and had peeked in, only to see his charge sitting up, wide-awake, and staring into the flame of a single candle as if it might hold the answers to everything. He wasn’t sure which thoughts had been keeping Eren up last night, but clearly the cleaning they had started less than an hour ago was not nearly as effective in keeping the young man awake. 

Levi sighed. Time was up; he needed to wake Eren now.

“Oi. Eren. Wake up!”

The boy jolted, almost smashing his head into Levi’s face with the speed at which he lurched upright. He swayed on the spot while Levi winced internally at the look of panic on the younger man’s face.

“C-captain Levi! I’m so sorry! I didn’t even feel myse-”

“It’s fine,” Levi cut in. He laid a hand on Eren’s shoulder and suppressed another twinge of chagrin at Eren’s involuntary flinch. “You’ve had it pretty rough. Finish off this hall then go down and make yourself some tea. I’ll be down in a bit to join you.”

The panic and fear on Eren’s face faded to discomfort and weariness. Levi squeezed his shoulder before pulling back to regard his charge. “And get to bed early tonight.”

“Sir?” Eren’s eyes brightened with confusion and for a moment his nervousness was lost in puzzlement.

“As soon as dinner ends, go down to the dungeons and get into bed. I don’t care if you sleep or not, but try to get some rest.”

Eren’s expression softened as he dropped his eyes and nodded. It was a far cry from a smile, but the absence of fear or tension on Eren’s face was a good place to start. Satisfied, Levi nodded and left the room.

—

Later, as Levi sat in his own room, staring out into the dark of night, putting off sleep once more, he thought back to that moment earlier when he had found Eren asleep and realized that, in that moment, for the first time in what felt like forever, he had felt…unwound, as if relaxed contentment was the sort of thing you could catch simply by looking at a person resting peacefully. 

And then, just as his young subordinate had nodded off earlier, the weary - and stressed and so much less certain than he seemed - Captain nodded off before he could even form a thought to deny himself that leave to rest.

Leave he had to order upon his own charge before he realized how much he needed it for himself too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [*] This fic was inspired by a wonderful piece of of fanart by [にゃる湖](http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=4813632)(nyaru-mizumi) on pixiv // [[[thirteenth image of this set]]](http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=manga&illust_id=53568217). Follow the links to view and rate the art ♥


	6. Cleaning Cleaners

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tagline for this says **"NEW"** but I actually wrote this _ages_ ago and simply never got around to posting it. This is actually the first piece of SnK fanfiction I ever wrote - and the first piece of fanfiction in any fandom I'd ever completed.* It's still kind of a mess, and it's totally silly, but it's precious to me, makes me smile, and I hope it makes you smile, too. 
> 
> (*Spirit Pizza - the first chapter in this collection - was the first fanwork I ever posted, in case you were wondering. That's also light and silly, but I hope it makes/made you smile, too ;3).

“Levi, what are you doing?”

Levi knelt in their living room, hunched over their vacuum cleaner.

“I’m cleaning the vacuum.”

Eren stared.

“You’re….what?!”

“I’m cleaning the inside of the vacuum out. It’s dusty,” Levi explained patiently, glancing up at where Eren stood frozen at his side, shooting a wry glance at his gobsmacked expression.

“Wha-… _what? Why?_ ”

“I _said_ , ‘because it’s dusty’; it gets that way after a while. Are you having trouble hearing or something? Or are you having a stroke?” Levi turned slightly towards Eren and peered up into his eyes with amused concern.

“I… _no,_ ” Eren ground out, starting to feel more than a little annoyed. “I just don’t understand why you’re cleaning a vacuum.” Eren paused to sigh and roll his eyes in exasperation at the conversation itself. “I mean…it’s a _vacuum_ ; it cleans stuff, it’s not supposed…I mean…you don’t…ughhh, why would you bother cleaning one?!”

Levi paused at the question, expression neutral and eyes thoughtful.

“Well, it gets dirty, too, and that makes it hard for it to clean other things properly. I mean look at the beater head,” he gestured behind himself and Eren glanced over to the discarded attachment sitting overturned on the rug. “The thing is completely clogged with hair - _disgusting_ \- so how is it supposed to pick up anything like that?”

Eren slowly shook his head, eyes closed in frustration and his expression one of weary incredulity. Levi turned away to pick up the implement in question then twisted back with it in his hands and continued as if he didn't notice Eren’s exasperation.

“You see, the hair has the beater cylinder all fouled up so that it can’t really spin.” Levi paused, studying it intently. He looked up at Eren.

“Would you clean it out for me while I get all the dust out the filter chamber?”

Now it was Eren’s turn to wear a carefully neutral expression, the mutinous glint to his eyes being the only clue to his irritation. He closed his eyes and rolled them behind this eyelids.  _This is fucking ridiculous,_ he groaned to himself _. Isn’t it bad enough that we clean the apartment as much as we do. Now this?_

Schooling himself to patience, he reminded himself: _This is just one of those things with Levi. He likes things clean. Just like I have my moods and my crazy passionate moments; he has his cleaning snaps. I just gotta accept that._

He sighed in weary acceptance and stretched out his hands for the attachment.

Levi affected not to notice any of this—or maybe he really didn’t, too wrapped up in twisting the beater head to look at the clog from different angles. He handed it off to Eren wordlessly. As soon as Eren had a grip on the beater, Levi turned back to the open vacuum on the floor, and spoke with his back turned, “Go ahead and do it over the trashcan, that way you don’t drop any dust or clumps of hair back into the carpet.”

With one last resigned grimace at Levi’s back, Eren turned on his heel and stalked towards the kitchen. Before he made it more than three steps, Levi called back over his shoulder, “Oh and you’ll definitely want to use scissors to cut the hair out. Makes it much easier and much faster.”

Eren paused and turned to look over his shoulder, his expression dark. “Come and see me when you’re done so I can give it a look-over. And I have some other things we should probably clean today, too, so, see me when you’re done and I send you along to the next one.”

He shot Levi one last stormy glare, made a sound of frustration, then stomped off to the kitchen trashcan.

From the living room, Levi could hear him banging around and grumbling to himself as he grabbed the scissors, propped open the lid to the can, and started hacking at the tangled mess around the beater. Levi grinned to himself then went back to wiping down the interior of the vacuum canister, quietly pleased as he meticulously worked the rag into each nook and cranny.

—

And that was pretty much how they ended up spending the rest of the day. Cleaning.

When Eren finished with the main beater head - thankfully passing Levi’s “inspection” the first time around - Levi set him to cleaning out the smaller beater attachments, while Levi himself took the filter pad outside so he could beat the dust out of it before throwing it into the wash.

After that Levi had them clean the rest of the vacuum brush attachments—spraying them with sanitizer and then washing the dust and gunk out of the bristles. Which then gave Levi the idea to wash out the brooms and dust pans. Which led to sanitizing and scrubbing out the mop buckets. Which led to doing the same for all of the trashcans. Which led to…

Seven continuous hours of cleaning cleaners. _Seven_. _Hours_.

All in all, they cleaned out the entire vacuum, all the brooms and dust pans, and even the handheld vacuum.

They sorted through all of the rags and sponges, trashing the old dingy ones and refolding and reorganizing the remaining ones.

They sorted through and reorganized all of the cleaning supplies under the kitchen and bathroom sinks, in the hall closet and on the shelves in the laundry room.

They consolidated the fifty or so spray bottles of cleaners. (“Why are there SO MANY?“ Eren asked at one point. “We both brought in a lot when we moved in,” Levi answered, to which Eren grumbled, “Whaddya mean ‘we’?”). They cleaned the outsides of all those bottles, cleaned the cabinet from which they came, and reorganized them again by size and use.

When the vacuum filter came out of the wash, Levi concluded that they should probably clean the washer, dryer, and dishwasher, while they were at it; so Levi pulled the hair trap out of the bottom of the washer while Eren vacuumed the dryer lint trap with the spare vacuum (“We…we have _spare_ vacuum?” “Yes the one I had from before we moved in.” “Why do we nee- oh nevermind”) and then afterwards, while Eren pulled and emptied the large particles trap from the dishwasher, then wiped down the outside, Levi put the first half of all the rags they had used earlier into the wash. Of course their bizarre cleaning spree wouldn’t be complete until even _the supplies they had used to clean the cleaning tools_ were clean and put away again.

By the time early evening rolled around - they were finishing up by folding the clean rags that had just come out of the dryer - Eren was exhausted, but his mood had vastly improved from that morning.

Actually, he had to admit that after they had gotten into the groove of cleaning, his frustration had all but burned off, replaced by concentration, and then by mid-afternoon, a sort of weary contentment.

It would have been difficult for Eren _not_ to pick up on Levi’s subtle enthusiasm, such was Levi’s passion for cleanliness and organization, and even Eren had to admit that there was a quiet sense of accomplishment to be had from completing a long day of cleaning and organizing to look back on what they did and see everything neat and tidy and in its own place. Their cleaning supplies _did_ seem so much neater when they were clean and well organized, so…

Eren sighed. _Well, at least today didn’t feel like a complete waste of time - even if it_ definitely _felt that way at first._

Moreover, somehow - on some level - doing all of that stuff together had made them both _happy_ ; Levi was happy to have the company and the help and Eren was just happy he could do something for and with his boyfriend. Eren realized then that doing something to help Levi feel happy, even if it was only something as simple as cleaning with him, would never feel like a waste of time - could never _be_ a waste of time to him.

He definitely wouldn’t do anything or _everything_ just because Levi asked, because, yeah, no, he was his own person, too, and he had his own desires and needs; but coming out of this day knowing that he would do and try things he normally wouldn’t on his own and be content, even _happy_ , to do so simply for the fact that it was a way to spend time with Levi - walking away with that little piece of proof of just how much he truly meant it when he told Levi he loved him and wanted to be with him, well, that made Eren feel even happier.

—

Eren was halfway done folding that first load of rags, using their living room couch as a worktable, when he heard Levi return from moving the next load into the dryer. Dimly, he registered the sound of their washer beeping in the unique way it does when it begins a self cleaning cycle. He shook his head and chuckled. _Can’t forget to clean the washing machine, either._

“Hmmmm. Thanks for helping today.”

Eren jumped a little as he felt an arm wrap around his waist from behind as Levi murmured the words to him. His hands slowed on the rag he was folding and he let his tired body relax a little into Levi as Levi leaned forward into him.

After a few moments of resting together like that, Levi spoke.

“I will admit, I _do_ have thing for cleaning the things that clean for me,” he purred into Eren’s left shoulder, reaching his other arm around and resting his forehead squarely between Eren’s shoulder blades so that he was now completely flush against Eren.

“Oh?” Eren froze, expression - even though Levi couldn’t see it - going carefully blank, hopeful at the sudden shift in mood.

“Mmmmm,” Levi hummed into Eren’s shirt, his breath warming Eren’s back. Emboldened, Eren huffed a laugh.

“Fuck, next you’ll be trying to filter the impurities out of the glass cleaner or have me picking individual pieces of lint out of the damn rags,” Eren moaned jokingly, tilting his head back until it knocked against Levi’s lightly.

Levi huffed a laugh back at him and he tightened his arms around Eren’s waist. Eren felt his heart rate pick up a little. In a low, sultry tone Levi murmured, “Ahh, but it seems _this_ cleaner has particularly dirty mouth. I clearly need to do something about that.”

Eren felt a goofy grin spread across his face, then stiffened as Levi’s hands drifted further south, eventually tightening and twisting at Eren’s hips, turning him to face Levi. Steely eyes not breaking contact with Eren’s for a second, Levi slowly lifted the rag from Eren’s hands and tossed it gently back into the waiting pile in the same motion that brought his lips up to meet Eren’s.

Levi kept the kiss chaste and simple for all of about a second and then he was laving his tongue insistently over Eren’s lips seeking entrance. Eren gave in gladly and Levi licked his way into his mouth, tongue roaming over every inch of his teeth - first from the top, then at the bottom - then moving on to his tongue, wrapping around and probing in ways that had Eren squirming. After he realized what was happening Eren actually laughed into Levi’s mouth - the damn man was actually making out as if he were _cleaning Eren’s mouth_ while they madeout! But rather than pulling away at the interruption, Levi in pressed closer, sucking at Eren’s mouth like he intended to vacuum the breath out of him.

Two could play at this game and in a momentary lull Eren pushed his own tongue forward and into Levi’s mouth, sliding over sharp incisor points, across flawlessly smooth enamel, and practically caressing the other man’s tongue. Levi leaned into it with a moan and Eren felt the corners of Levi’s mouth twitch as Eren continued his best rendition of “mouth-to-mouth hygenics” in return.

By the time they broke away, both short of breath and eyes closed, Eren was barely with it enough to murmur a breathy reply of “Yeah, well, if we keep this up then I might just end up a dirty mess somewhere else.” He promptly flushed bright red in embarrassment.

“Sorry. That. Sounded way less raunchy in my head than it did…”

Eren opened his eyes just in time to catch Levi’s flickered glance down before the hot flush spread even further across his face; Levi pulled him closer, grinding Eren’s growing arousal against his own, and Eren thought his face might just catch on fire at this rate. Levi was blushing, too, he realized, but there was a twinkle to his eyes.

“Ahh, well, then we’ll just have to do something about that, too, won’t we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing tumblr is [verbostrocity](http://verbostrocity.tumblr.com/) and my main blog is [ChristmasRivers](http://christmasrivers.tumblr.com/). If you enjoyed my work, I'd love to hear from you here in the comments and/or on tumblr via either of my blogs. Thanks for reading!


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